The Spare
by Dragons and Otters
Summary: Cedric Diggory faces the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament.


**A/N:** This was entered in the "Something Worth Fighting For" Quills  & Parchment oneshot competition. The prompts were quotes from the books and movies, and mine was: "What's life without a little risk?" — Sirius Black. Thanks to all of the admins and readers/voters for an amazing round. Thanks to JadePresley and oblivionbaby for their beta and mentorship skills respectively. Your help and support mean the world!

* * *

 _It all comes down to this_.

At least, that's what Cedric Diggory thinks as he wrestles with the magic of a giant maze, struggling against the roots that erupt from the ground and wrap around him — the adrenaline coursing through his veins the only thing keeping his limbs moving. The wizard tries to focus on his magic, on escaping, and not the screaming of his very bones from the pain and exhaustion.

 _So close…_

His movements are lit by the blue glow of the Triwizard Cup. He can see it as he continues to struggle against the bonds. It's not until Harry Potter's spell frees him that he even remembers the younger man is with him. He stumbles helplessly to his feet, holding onto Harry's arm like a lifeline. He barely registers Harry urging him forward, giving him the win. Cedric only allows himself a moment to consider the offer. He can practically hear the Sorting Hat's words from seven years ago bouncing around in his mind.

— _but you're so ambitious!_

No. Cedric shakes his head desperately, tightening his grip on the Chosen One. Harry suggests they take it together, and it makes sense in the moment, Cedric tells himself. The Hogwarts champions' fates had been intertwined since the same cup they both eyed now brought forth Harry's name all those months ago — though it feels like another lifetime ago.

Paying close attention to Harry Potter over the past year had only confirmed the suspicions growing in the back of his mind since the Death Eater attack at the Quidditch World Cup. Something dark is brewing, Cedric knows it with every fiber of his being. The lightning-shaped scar on the boy's forehead serves as a reminder of what could become of their world, and Cedric knows he will fight when the time comes. It was never a question in his mind, really, but his father... He shakes his head to rid himself of the thoughts. He needs to focus on the task at hand.

 _It all comes down to this._

The thought crosses his mind once more as he and Harry reach for the cup together. It was always going to come down to this. Though part of him is bitterly enraged that a fourteen year old could be his equal in such a dangerous competition, Cedric knows in his heart that it was always going to end this way. Pieces of the puzzle begin to fit together as Cedric's momentum pushes him the last of the way to the Cup, his fingers grasping one of the handles as his gut screams —

 _Ooof — !_

Cedric's uncertainty unnerves him, throwing him off balance. He lands awkwardly and falls, scrambling to his feet as his heart thuds an incessant warning against his chest. He knows immediately that they have not landed back at the front of the maze, back with his father and Cho. His earlier suspicions are confirmed as he takes in the sight of tombstones around them. He looks to Harry, and he's still trying to read the expression on the Chosen One's face when Voldemort says the last words Cedric Diggory will ever hear.

" _Kill the spare!"_

Cedric's ears begin to ring, the rest of the world drowning away as he turns toward the voice, his wand held defensively and confidently in front of him. He can see the killing curse forming on the lips of a man in the distance, can feel the force of Harry's disapproving scream from behind him, but he can't _hear_ anything. He can only watch as the jet of green light erupts in the darkness. It feels as if time itself slows down, as if each particle of air is trying to reject the curse's intrusion as it zooms toward him.

 _It all comes down to this._

It's not his life up to this point that Cedric sees as he waits for death, it's the future. Two different scenarios play out in his mind's eye as he watches the green light coming closer. He'd been told all his life how powerful he was, how his magic could restore his family's name, how very much he could accomplish. His life, what he had always imagined to be a long and fruitful endeavor, is being tragically cut short, and all he can do is imagine the multitude of things he could have done. He watches helplessly as his imagination shows him the love of his life falling only because he wasn't there to fight in the war alongside her, as his father dies old, decrepit, and alone. It's his worst nightmare realized. He doesn't even get the satisfaction of revelling in the fact he was right all along — that a war is coming — when the second scenario flashes across his mind. In this second future, he gets everything he's dreamed of for his life.

" _What's life without a little risk?"_

Though the war is still as horrible in this version of his future, Cedric watches himself fulfill all of his potential. He listens as a Cedric who will never be uses a rhetorical question to convince his friends to join the war efforts. The irony is not lost on him, as this is the very same question he threw at his father in their argument about entering the Triwizard Tournament. He watches this man he will never have the chance to become rally his friends to join the Order, convincing them to put their lives at risk, to stay and defend their world instead of fleeing to the safety of a neutral country.

" _There are things worth dying for — worth fighting for."_

He watches from the outside as the future he might have had with Cho unfolds. His heart crumbles with the realization of what their relationship could have been. He sees their power struggle as Cedric's divergent nature wants to help lift his witch to great heights but also struggles with the need to keep her safe. He watches as they fight viciously about her involvement in the resistance at Hogwarts and the danger she's putting herself in. Then he sees a gorgeous display of Cho's strength, and they fight in the war together side-by-side. And there they stay, dressed now in formal attire for their wedding. And then again with a perfect little baby held between them. An entire life ahead of them.

 _It all comes down to this_.

As he comes back to the graveyard, and the killing curse is but a breath away from his chest, it feels as if the long book of his life is unravelling, empty pages ripping from its spine, words disappearing through the last stitch. Death coming before he finishes school, starts his career, settles down or continues his family's name — before he can ensure his legacy.

 _She deserves a long and fulfilling life._

He's not sure if the experience is usually painless, but the love he feels for Cho fills him up and makes him glow from the inside. He doesn't feel anything but love as the curse hits him square in the chest. His last thoughts — desperately hoping that he doesn't see Cho again for a very long time — float through his mind before he falls gracelessly to the cold ground of the cemetery, dead.

His spirit only barely registers that the end has come before his life force is pulled back to Earth. His vision erupts around him, and he's in the cemetery once more. Two strange men and a woman follow him out of Voldemort's wand as the dark wizard and the Chosen One stand off — their wands connected at the place where Voldemort's _Avada Kedavra_ ends and Harry's _Expelliarmus_ begins. He watches as Harry's parents comfort him and tell him what to do next.

" _Take my body back, will you? Take my body back to my father."_

He says it before he can stop himself. He knows how much this moment means to Harry — to see his parents, to hear them. Cedric sees the warring emotions play out across his face. Harry wants to stay in this magical bubble forever with his parents but needs to get to safety. Cedric realizes what the weight of the Wizarding World truly feels like on Harry's shoulders.

As quickly as Cedric's return to Earth came, it was gone.

 _It all comes down to this._

Amos Diggory's cheers of pride blend into screams of despair as he registers the scene in front of him. Seeing the yellow of Cedric's uniform did not in fact mean that he was alive or that he had won. He can barely see his son for Harry Potter's body clinging to him. "He's back. Voldemort's back." The words bounce around Amos' mind, and though the life-shattering grief he feels attempts to reject the boy's words, he finds Cedric's predictions haunting him. His son had known this was coming. But neither of them could have ever prepared for this. He had _told_ his son that this tournament was too risky, but he never imagined this level of danger.

It feels as if Amos himself has died as tears break free from his eyes and fall openly, as he tries to tear himself from Arthur Weasley's grasp and get to his son. Surely it is all a joke, he lets himself think. Surely once he reaches Cedric, once he puts his hands on him, his son will reanimate, laughing and celebrating. The things he had planned for his son's life pour into his mind, scalding him from the inside, drowning him in pain.

Grief swallows the widower whole after losing first his wife and then his son. Though he has nothing left to live for, he lives long enough for historians to declare the night Cedric Diggory died as the true beginning of the Second Wizarding War. Nothing diminishes the pain of losing his only son, but he clings to the knowledge that Cedric would be glad his death was a noble one.

Amos is in bed when he feels his end nearing. He clutches desperately to a piece of parchment that Cho Chang had given him a few months after Cedric's death. She had been nervous to pass it along, but he recalls clearly that she'd needed to move on and could no longer be in possession of his son's last words. He remembers her saying she hoped it would bring him peace, knowing that Cedric was a good man. Amos could never hope for peace after all the suffering in his life, but he faces death confidently, knowing that he had raised a decent son, a son to be proud of. He can see Cedric on the other side waiting for him, and for the first time in decades, a smile graces Amos' lips just as he takes his last breath.

The parchment he'd been clinging to slowly drifts to the ground as his fingers unfurl.

 _My dearest Cho,_

 _If you are reading this, then I must be dead._

 _I can only hope that you were not around to witness it and that somehow it was a noble death. I fear that I will let the competition get to me, that I won't be strong enough or smart enough to win it, or to survive. There's a reason they stopped hosting these games in the first place._

 _No, I hope it was an honorable death. I hope that you will be proud of me, even though I know you must be desperately angry with me. I'm sorry to have left you behind. I'm so so sorry, my love._

 _I want you to be happy, and I don't want you to let my death scare you from your ambitions._

 _You know what we talked about. You know what's worth dying for — what's worth fighting for. Don't let the world make you cold, Cho. You are stronger than anything it can throw at you — yes, even this._

 _I need you to know that I love you more than anything. Even though my heart has stopped beating, it will always belong to you._

 _Cedric_


End file.
